Elimination Units for Marine Oil Pollution

PROJECT OBJECTIVE

In the post-Prestige era, it is time a completely new and multidisciplinary concept for handling oil spillage in European waters was developed. This will yield environmental benefits, an impulse to the respective European industry and it will ultimately result in an exportable product for marine oil spill confrontation.

Specifically, the project proposes the design and proof of concept of autonomous Elimination Units for Marine Oil Pollution (EU-MOPs), capable of mitigating and eliminating the threat arising from oil spill incidents. The end-result of this project will be the conceptual development and validation of low cost, possibly recyclable, autonomous vessels/drones that will be released in the oil spill area, will automatically (through proper sensors) track the oil concentration specifics of the spill and will apply either mechanical or chemical countermeasures locally. Combining a large number of such units will confront the entire spill. A range of such units will be designed to allow their use in various oil spill scenarios (large, high-seas spills are very different from small, coastal spills; a 'one size fits all' concept is inappropriate). The complete integrated system, including communication, logistical support, and response management will be analyzed and assessed.

A strong, multidisciplinary and competitive consortium of world experts is established, and will interact with an industrial Advisory Committee that will provide expert guidance throughout its duration.

The research objectives are to establish:

1. Innovative concepts in oil spill management;
2. Novel devices for oil spill confrontation;
3. An integrated framework for oil spill management; and
4. An advanced structure for the dissemination of oil pollution response policies.

Validation, proof of concept and virtual (simulation) experiments are included in the project.